From the standpoint of antique wooden planes, the vast majority of them have maker's marks where the name on the stamp is recessed, and the border is incised with triangular marks made by a saw file. This is true of both American and British planes, though this changed somewhat in the later production period of wooden planes in the late 19th century.
This leaves a mark on the plane where the maker's name is raised, and the area around it is recessed.
There are reasons for this. Owners needed to stamp their tools once, so they might use their stamp a few dozen or perhaps a hundred or so times during their lifetime. Makers would use their stamp hundreds of times a month, if not more.
By definition, a stamp with the owner's name incised into the metal will last far longer than a stamp where the letters are raised above the metal's surface, because the 2nd kind of stamp puts a great deal of force on a very thin section of metal.
Nevertheless, many maker's stamps did not last their working lifetime, and the approximate production date of a plane can be deduced by the form of the lettering. In some cases where the maker used the same stamp for many years, when a plane was made can be deduced by examining the breakage of certain sections of the stamp. In other words, the more perfect the stamp, the earlier the plane.